Dorm Room Fund

Dorm Room Fund is a $3 million American venture capital firm focused on investments in student-run startups.[1][2] Established by First Round Capital in 2012, the firm is operated by full-time undergraduate and graduate students.[3][4] It has backed companies that have raised a combined $300 million in venture capital from investors including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Union Square Ventures.[5][6] With investments in over 100 companies,[5] the firm is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the US.[7] The firm has teams in San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Dorm Room Fund, LLC
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded2012
Area served
United States
Websitedormroomfund.com

In addition to providing early-stage capital,[8] Dorm Room Fund draws upon its own resources as well as First Round's to support student entrepreneurs.[9] In January 2018, Dorm Room Fund's Head of Engineering Yasyf Mohamedali launched VCWiz, a tool to help founders (student or otherwise) research, discover, and reach out to seed-stage investors.[10] In February 2018, Snap Inc. announced a program to provide free advertising on Snapchat to select up-and-coming startups, targeting Dorm Room Fund portfolio companies in particular.[11]

Portfolio

Dorm Room Fund's portfolio includes A&B American Style,[12] Brooklinen,[13] Blockstack, FiscalNote,[1] Elektra Labs,[14] LearnLux,[15] LovePop, Grove Labs, BevSpot, Bevi, Humon, and TetraScience.[16] Notable acquisitions within the portfolio include tbh (acquired by Facebook),[17] Firefly,[18] Zodiac (acquired by Nike),[19][20] and Yard Club (acquired by Caterpillar).[21]

References
  1. "Dorm Room Fund is growing up, but the students are still in charge | Uncubed". Uncubed. 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  2. "First Round Expands $500K Student-Run Investment Arm, Dorm Room Fund, To New York City Universities – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  3. Casserly, Meghan. "The Dorm Room Fund: A Conversation With First Round Capital's Phin Barnes". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  4. Ramsinghani, Mahendra (2014). The Business of Venture Capital. Wiley. pp. 192–192. ISBN 978-1-118-75219-7.
  5. "Dorm Room Fund | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  6. "DRF 5-Year Report". 5years.dormroomfund.com. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  7. "The 106 Most Active Seed Venture Capital Firms". CB Insights Research. 2015-01-10. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
  8. Konrad, Alex. "College-Specific Funds Are On The Rise – But Are They Built To Last?". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  9. Casserly, Meghan. "The Dorm Room Fund Goes Back To School With All-Star Resident Advisors". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  10. "Dorm Room Fund has built a CRM for founders raising a seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
  11. "Snap is giving some small startups – including those from Y Combinator – free ads on Snapchat". Recode. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  12. "Funded in the Alley: A&B American Style – Dormroom Fund NY's First Very Hot Launch". AlleyWatch. 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  13. "Dorm Room Fund & NYU entrepreneurs – What You Need To Know". NYU Entrepreneurship. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  14. "No one knows how effective digital therapies are, but a new tool from Elektra Labs aims to change that". TechCrunch. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
  15. "New Money: MassChallenge Alum Gets Dorm Room Fund Investment; Drone Co. Raises Seed Round". www.americaninno.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  16. "MIT Startups in Dorm Room Fund". mitadmissions.org. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  17. O'Brien, Sara Ashley. "Facebook acquires beloved teen app 'tbh'". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  18. "Dorm Room Fund's Firefly sold to Pegasystems". Philly.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  19. "First Round Capital leads $3M round in Wharton-founded predictive analytics startup". Technical.ly Philly. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  20. Bain, Marc. "Nike is trying to become the next great direct-to-consumer brand". Quartz. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  21. "Caterpillar acquired Yard Club, a marketplace for construction equipment". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
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